Letting Go (Mitchell Family #1)(8)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“This is going to sting.” He said as he started wiping my face.

“Ouch!” I said when it first touched my skin. I could smell the alcohol on the pad he was using.

He stuck out his tongue like he was concentrating on all of the scrapes and bruises. “Just tryin’ to clean you up so I can assess the damage.” He explained.

“Can’t I just tell you every place that hurts?” I asked.

“Just keep sittin’ there.” He was focused on my cheek for a longer than normal amount of time. His hands started scrambling around the kit again. “Van, do you trust me?”

“Should I? Why are you asking me that?” I wanted to know.

“I need to give you a couple stitches.” He said confidently.

I stood up in a panic. “No way!”

He smiled. “No to the stitches, or to trusting me?”

“Maybe both.” I said hesitantly.

“You do know that I have stitched up every type of farm animal that exists? I am fully capable of mending your cheek without you having to go to the hospital or worry your family tonight.”

I was scared, but he was right. I couldn’t let them see me like this. I had put them all through Hell. There was not much more that they could take. “Fine.” I finally said.

He left the room for a moment and as soon as he did, I looked in the small mirror above the sink at my face. It was worse than I thought. My one eye was almost swollen shut. My cheek was busted at the tip of my cheekbone and blood was still coming out of it. My lips had doubled in size and dried blood was at the base of both of my nostrils.

That was just my face.

Colt came back in the room and sighed. “I knew you would look.” He shook his head and handed me a bottle of whiskey.

“What is this for?” I asked.

“Well I reckon this is going to hurt some. So, I figured you could get a few shots in you and numb the pain. I promise I won’t touch you all night.” He said and winked when he did it.

I hated the taste of whiskey, but after seeing my face, I knew it would hurt like a bitch. I opened the cap and started taking big gulps. It burned so bad and I struggled to keep it down at first. Colt leaned against the bathroom wall and watched me as I drank.

“You want some of this?” I asked handing the bottle to him.

He smiled. “I think it would be best if I operated on your face sober, don’t you?”

I laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

He shook his head and laughed again. “Keep drinkin’.”

I took some more large sips. It was starting to not burn so bad going down. I could feel my body starting to relax after a few minutes, but Colt waited patiently. He walked toward the sink and got a clean washcloth. His eyes were focused on my face, but only at what he needed to do to take care of it.

“I bet you didn’t come to this town to deal with my shit.” I implied.

“No big deal Darlin’. Me and Sam weren’t doing much else anyway.”

Sam? So he did have a girlfriend. I wonder where she was tonight. I hadn’t seen her at the bonfire and he hadn’t mentioned her at all. “Where is this Sam? Is she pretty? I bet she is a beauty.” I admitted.

He laughed again. “She is in the main house and yeah she is pretty darn cute.”

I imagined him being with this beautiful blonde. He was such a handsome man and any girl would have been lucky to be with someone like him. Colt acted rough on the outside, but he had a big heart and his family was always the most important thing in his life.

“I can’t feel my tongue anymore.” I confessed.

He knelt down in front of me. As his strong hands began working on my face, I closed my eyes and felt his warm breath against my cheek. When I opened them again, I noticed how focused he was on my face. I could feel him touching it, but there was no pain.

“Try to hold as still as you can Van. Okay?” He asked.

“Okay.” I said slurring my words. I looked at him as he worked on me. I liked the patch of hair that sat just under his bottom lip and the small remnants of a moustache that could only mean he hadn’t shaved today. Colt had lips like Ty’s and I couldn’t help but notice them. His hair was so dark and it was so thick coming from underneath his green hat. Being this close to him, I could see a few small freckles he had across his nose from being in the sun all the time. His green eyes were like crystals and just as I was admiring them, he caught me looking.

“You doin’ alright?” He asked, causing me to blush and feel embarrassed.

“Yeah, I am.”

It must have been the alcohol, because my mind was not on my injuries at all.

Colt

I had managed to get myself into trouble after only being here for one day. Not only had I gotten myself involved with drama, but I had my cousin’s girl in my bathroom. Her face was beaten to a pulp and her clothes ruined. I was doing my best to take care of her after forcing her to come out in the first place. Her friend was of no help and I was positive that we would never be hooking up in the future.

Everyone in town might be mad at Savanna, but she didn’t force the football star to make the decisions he made. None of this was her fault. I felt sorry for her. She had loved him for so long and now she was the one suffering the most.

When I got the final stitch finished up, I stood up. I could tell Van was pretty drunk and it was a good thing, because she looked like Hell.

“Let’s get you into bed.” I suggested, not realizing she read too much into that comment. I smiled. “Van, I am sleeping on the couch. You need to rest. I will give you something to change into and you can lay in my room.”

She smiled. It was one of those drunk looks that girls do when they start to get all sloppy. “Oh.” She said before she started laughing uncontrollably. Seeing her like this, even with the beaten up face was cute. She was relaxed and not uptight. “Lead the way Doctor Colton.” She slurred.

Van followed me into the bedroom where I gave her a clean shirt and pair of boxers out of my bag that I hadn’t even unpacked yet. “Go ahead and change into these.” I said as I handed them to her.

“I can’t!” She said as she stood there swaying back and forth.

“Why not?”

“I can’t feel my fingers. I haven’t drank in a long time.” She admitted and giggled some more.

I rolled my eyes. This was bad, but at the same time, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was taking care of her. It was what Ty would want.

I walked up to her and took a breath. I had to focus on her face. I couldn’t look at her as nothing more than Ty’s property. Without really touching her skin, I pulled off the shirt that hung on by a thread anyway. Her white lace bra was still intact. Thank God. She started to lose her balance and pressed her hands into my chest to regain her composure. When she went to stand back up her face was within inches of mine.